Social Media Influencers - What You Need to Know

Brands can take advantage of the credibility earned by social media influencers to access and persuade a larger audience by virtue of their authenticity and reach.

Photo by Daniel Salcius on Unsplash

The first thing you need to know is there are several types of influencers. You may feel overwhelmed and unsure of where you should start.

Social media influencers are online (internet) personalities who use their clout online to create content and build an audience. Any brand/ business partner can reach out and collaborate to create engaging content.

Today, consumers turn to influencers for reviews and recommendations. According to Raffel Press, over 3 billion people use social media today. Social media influencers are growing at an exponential rate across platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube because of the ability to monetize their content directly or indirectly from brands worldwide. Today, social media influencers play a more prominent role than ever before in helping brands reach their audience. 

Before you start your search for an influencer to collaborate, there are a few things you would need to consider.

Type of influencer for your brand

When you start your research for potential partners, you may (read as WILL) feel overwhelmed where to should start. There are different types of influencers

Micro-influencer - 1,000 to 100,000 followers

The most common and most preferred social media influencer for many business owners as they can create multiple niche-specific content as they have a targeted audience to reach through their videos and posts.

Macro-influencers - 100,000 to 1 million followers

The advantage of working with macro-influencers is that you can expose your brand to a more substantial audience base while still working with a specific persona.

Celebrity influencer - Over 1 million followers

A massive number of followers = increased reach = expensive

Brands should be aware that they cannot opt for a specific audience persona while collaborating with a celebrity influencers. Many might not have an interest in your product or service. 

Understanding the types of influencers can help you design your marketing campaigns. For example, if you want to launch or promote a new product, you would want to work with a micro or a macro-influencer, because they have a more reliable connection to your audience. 

Influencers can't build social proof alone

Influencers help brands build social proof by recommending your product page/social media account/ website to their followers. While this can do wonders for encouraging trust, influencers can't act alone. Brands and businesses have to create your own forms of social proof to support your claims.

1. Give your customers the option to share their reviews. Reviews and feedback could be the deciding factor for your next customer to complete their order

2. Play an active role on the social media platforms where your audience and influencers are active

3. Be consistent with your efforts and restart the exercise every quarter to know the impact of reach among influencers across platforms

Make some tough decisions

You are the owner of your brand and collaborating with a social media influencer is a two-way relationship. Do not make a split-second decision about which online influencers you should use. Instead, spend time understanding different candidates and shorten the list before you select a few influencers who you think would work well with your brand. 

Further, let us accept that not all influencer partnerships last forever. Assess the performance of your partnership promoting your brand with personalized links and analytics tracking. Make data-driven decisions before you extend of end a contract with an influencer.

Conclusion

Social media is here to stay, and influencer marketing should remain a large part of your strategy. Do share your experience of collaborating with an influencer in the comments below. It would be great to understand your journey.

Thank you

Yogesh Babu

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